GIN 2015 Archives

Washington, D.C.-Today at the Global Issues Network Conference at George WashingtonUniversity’s school of foreign policy, Dante Everaert, a WIS sophomore, made a presentation on his research on how to design more noise-efficient private jets. His research concluded that noise pollution in such jets caused passengers to feel as if their blood-alcohol content was at 0.1 (to put that into context, it is illegal to drive in DC with a B.A.C. of over 0.08).

Additionally, the noise from such planes can damage eardrums in the long term and hinders neuronic transmission in the brain, causing a slow in one’s ability to process thoughts. Dante’s research concluded that to improve the design of currently-existing private jets, the casings for the engines and thrusters should cause noise to reflect downwards, away from passengers.

Furthermore, triangular wingtips can prevent noise vertices from forming and being directed at the hull and thus, passengers. Dante’s research ended up with him creating a simulated plane hull and engine on the software ‘X-plane’ of the plane with ideal noise-minimization, the result was an unorthodox-looking hull with a bottle-like design and small wings right behind the nose with wings pushed back to the very back with the thrusters. Also surprising was the direction of the wings, versus having the curved part face the front, the side of the wings that was front-facing was straight. He said that he increased wingspan so that it would be 2.5 times as long as the hull, a ratio he modelled after the design of the Airbus double-decker plane.

​All this combined would decrease noise pollution significantly, increasing not only passenger-pilot comfort, but also the amount of noise folks living in airports’ proximities must deal with. Dante concluded his presentation with an impressive simulated flight demonstration, taking off from Dulles International, flying a few miles, turning around and gracefully landing with his noise-minimizing jet.